Preparation process of shear thickening gel based on constrained uniform mixture design and orthogonal experimental design

The relative shear thickening effect (RSTE) of shear thickening gel (STG) is influenced by nine factors, including the mass ratio of four components and five process parameters. To obtain high RSTE, the constrained uniform mixture design and orthogonal experimental design were implemented to obtain the optimal ratio of each component and optimal process parameter combination, respectively. Then, validation experiments were carried out to verify the accuracy of the obtained results. The optimal mass ratio is m(polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS):m(pyroboric acid, PA):m(anhydrous ethanol, AE):m(benzoyl peroxide, BPO) = 66.42:21.48:10.66:1.45. The impact degrees and optimal process parameter combinations are PDMS viscosity (500 mm2/s)>reaction temperature (240 °C)>curing time (60min)>reaction time (600min)>curing temperature (120min). The RSTE averages obtained from the validation experiments were all above 300000 %, with a maximum of 345843 %. STG with high RSTE can be obtained through experimental analysis, shedding light on improving the subsequent preparation process of STG.